SILVER SPRING, Md., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — In a historic open letter to the World Health Organization and other public health agencies, the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD), and the United Methodist Women are seeking to stop the use of mercury in human drugs, especially vaccines. Currently, the mercury-based preservative Thimerosal, which is 49% mercury by weight, remains in vaccines for the United States and much of the world, despite the fact that it is a known neurotoxin. While other safer and less toxic alternatives are being utilized, industry has been slow to eliminate Thimerosal from many vaccines, including the flu shot given to those most vulnerable to this toxin, children and pregnant women.

The goal of the United Methodist Women and CoMeD is to protect the global immunization program and to safeguard public confidence in vaccines by seeing that the addition of mercury to human pharmaceuticals ceases. Through the ongoing diplomatic work of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme, these organizations hope to impact the formulation of a global, legally binding treaty on mercury scheduled to be completed in 2013.

In these negotiations, the World Health Organization and other global distributors of vaccines have defended the continuing use of mercury, especially in vaccines. They maintain that there is no evidence of harm from Thimerosal. Dr. Mark R. Geier, a CoMeD director, cautions, “Recent statements by those holding national and global responsibility for vaccine safety are difficult to reconcile with the known and published toxicity of Thimerosal.” Eight decades of scientific literature have shown that Thimerosal poses a significant health risk and its manufacturers acknowledge it can cause mild to severe mental retardation in children.

The United Methodist Church passed the first global resolution “Protecting Children from Mercury-containing Drugs,” and the United Methodist Women have actively advocated for a ban of mercury in medicine on moral and ethical grounds. As the Rev. Lisa K. Sykes, the author of the original draft of the United Methodist global resolution, asserts, “The United Methodist Women have historically advocated in the areas of education and health, both in this country and around the world. Undertaking the issue of mercury in vaccines and other drugs is just one expression of that commitment.”

The United Methodist Women and CoMeD support every effort to make safer vaccines, those without added mercury, equally available to all persons around the globe.

The ban option is one of several proposals on the table for a meeting later this month in Nairobi, but a final treaty isn’t expected until 2013.

According to the World Health Organization, mercury is one of the top 10 chemicals of public health concern and is highly toxic. Most of the worry is centered on mercury emissions from burning coal, gold mining and people eating mercury-tainted fish.

Mercury in small amounts is also found in many products including light bulbs, batteries and thermometers. WHO advises such products to be phased out, suggesting for example, that health systems switch to digital thermometers instead.

The problem is that a proposed ban might include thiomersal, a mercury compound used to prevent contamination and extend the shelf life of vaccines, many scientists say. It is used in about 300 million shots worldwide, against diseases including flu, tetanus, hepatitis B, diptheria and meningitis.

“Not being able to use mercury is not a viable option,” said David Wood, a WHO vaccines expert.

Wood said there isn’t a viable alternative to thiomersal at the moment. If banned, pharmaceuticals would likely have to switch to preservative-free vaccines, which would complicate the supply chain and vaccination campaigns in poor countries, since the injections would have a much shorter shelf life. Costs would also spike since manufacturers would need to reconfigure their factories.

In 2009, the United Nations Environment Programme, or UNEP, began working on a legally binding global treaty on mercury. At the end of October, the third of five meetings to hammer out a treaty will take place in Nairobi.

“The document is a draft at the moment, so some of these proposals have to be taken with a grain of salt,” said Tim Kasten, head of the chemicals branch at UNEP. Kasten said the amount of mercury in vaccines is so minute it doesn’t threaten the environment. He said there could be provisions to allow mercury for certain uses, such as in dental fillings and vaccines.

But according to an annex in the draft document, there is currently no “allowable use exemption” for mercury products in pharmaceutical products, putting vaccines in the same category as banned mercury-containing paints and pesticides.

“That would be a terrible idea,” said Paul Offit, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “It would be another tragic example of us not being able to explain to the public where the real risk lies.”

Thiomersal has mostly been removed from childhood vaccines in the U.S. and Canada. In some European countries, including Norway and Sweden, manufacturers have been encouraged to make thiomersal-free vaccines — and no other uses of mercury as a medical preservative are allowed.

Fears about thiomersal in vaccines were first raised after a flawed medical study in 1998 linked a common childhood injection to autism. But numerous studies since have found no sign the mercury compound is risky.

Experts hope countries won’t go overboard in their attempts to control the substance.

“Provided you know the risks and it’s handled properly, there isn’t a problem,” said Andrew Nelson, a toxicology expert at the University of Leeds. “The health of so many millions of children benefit from vaccines containing mercury that an absolute ban is ridiculous.”

Energy-saving light bulbs were at the centre of a fresh health scare last night after researchers claimed they can release potentially harmful amounts of mercury if broken.

Levels of toxic vapour around smashed eco-bulbs were up to 20 times higher than the safe guideline limit for an indoor area, the study said.

It added that broken bulbs posed a potential health risk to pregnant women, babies and small children.

The concerns surround ‘compact fluorescent lamps’ (CFLs), the most common type of eco-bulb in Britain, which are mini-versions of the strip lights found in offices.

The European Union is phasing out the traditional ‘incandescent bulbs’ used for more than 120 years and is forcing people to switch to low-energy alternatives to meet its climate change targets.

A CFL uses a fifth of the energy of a conventional bulb and can save £7 a year in bills. However, critics complain that CFLs’ light is harsh and flickery. Medical charities say they can trigger epileptic fits, migraines and skin rashes and have called for an ‘opt out’ for vulnerable people.

Incandescent bulbs do not contain mercury, along with other variants of energy-saving lights, such as LEDs and halogen bulbs. The study, for Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, tested a ‘worst case’ scenario using two CFLs, one containing 2 milligrams of mercury and the other 5 milligrams. Neither lamp had a protective casing and both were broken when hot.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Wilhelm Klauditz Institute found that they released around 7 micrograms (there are 1,000 micrograms in a milligram) per cubic metre of air.The official guideline limit is 0.35 micrograms per cubic metre.

Federal Environment Agency president Jochen Flasbarth said: ‘The presence of mercury is the downside to energy-saving lamps. We need a lamp technology that can prevent mercury pollution soon.

‘The positive and necessary energy savings of up to 80 per cent as compared with light bulbs must go hand in hand with a safe product that poses no risks to health.’

During tests the German government agency’s researchers were alarmed to discover that some bulbs had no protective cover and broke when hot.

High levels of mercury were measured at floor level up to five hours after the bulbs failed.

A spokesman for the agency said: ‘Children and expectant mothers should keep away from burst energy-saving lamps.

‘For children’s rooms and other areas at higher risk of lamp breakage, we recommend the use of energy-saving lamps that are protected against breakage.’ However, the UK Government insisted the CFL bulbs were safe – and that the risk from a one-off exposure was minimal.

The Health Protection Agency says a broken CFL is unlikely to cause health problems. However, it advises people to ventilate a room where a light has smashed and evacuate it for 15 minutes.

Householders are also advised to wear protective gloves while wiping the area of the break with a damp cloth and picking up fragments of glass. The cloth and glass should be placed in a plastic bag and sealed.

CFLs are not supposed to be put in the dustbin, whether broken or intact, but taken as hazardous waste to a recycling centre.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: ‘Guidance from the Health Protection Agency makes it clear that the mercury contained in low energy bulbs does not pose a health risk to anyone immediately exposed, should one be broken.’

Friends of the Earth said the switch to low-energy bulbs would reduce exposure to mercury from coal-fired power stations.

“The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or the Doomsday Vault as the media have nicknamed it, was officially opened on February 26, 2008, to serve as the ultimate safety net for one of the world’s most important natural resources. The world’s seed collections are vulnerable to a wide range of threats – civil strife, war, natural catastrophes, and, more routinely but no less damagingly, poor management, lack of adequate funding, and equipment failures.“ Global Crop Diversity Trust

This ‘Doomsday Vault’ is part of an effort to protect the planet’s diminishing biodiversity.

The facility was dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain on Spitsbergen, one of 3 Arpichelago Islands in Norway. Any seeds stored here will be secure for centuries, or longer.

As well as protecting against the loss of multicultural diversity, the vault is going to provide the salvation for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster.

Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years.

Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010. This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000.

“The Foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels,” said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering, in the press release. “First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests.”

Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80% crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. “When the economic power of Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for African smallholders is not very promising,” said Mayet. Monsanto’s aggressive patenting practices have also monopolized control over seed in ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to sue—and bankrupt—farmers for “patent infringement.”

News of the Foundation’s recent Monsanto investment has confirmed the misgivings of many farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates in Africa, among them the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, who commented, “We have long suspected that the founders of AGRA—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—had a long and more intimate affair with Monsanto.” Indeed, according to Travis English, researcher with AGRA Watch, “The Foundation’s ownership of Monsanto stock is emblematic of a deeper, more long-standing involvement with the corporation, particularly in Africa.”

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency shows a correlation between the use of cells from babies in abortions in vaccines to an increase in autism rates. The study provides another problem from pro-life advocates who are already concerned about the abortion-vaccine tie.

The study, published in February in the publication Environmental Science & Technology, confirms 1988 as a “change point” in the rise of Autism Disorder rate.
“Although the debate about the nature of increasing autism continues, the potential for this increase to be real and involve exogenous environmental stressors exists,” the study says.

The 1988 date is significant because, as pro-life blogger Jill Stanek notes, the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute indicates that’s when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices added a second dose of the MMR vaccine, containing fetal cells from aborted babies, to its recommendations.

The study found two other change point dates: 1981, two years after MMRII was approved in the United States with fetal cells, and 1995, when SCPI says the chickenpox vaccine using aborted cells was approved.

Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, said today that his group is joining SCPI in calling for a Fair Labeling and Informed Consent Act to let people know of this link and the use of cells form babies victimized by abortion.

“For years the evidence has pointed toward the link between vaccines using DNA from aborted babies and the rise of Autism Disorder rates,” he said. “Parents need and deserve to know the risks associated with vaccinations made from lines derived from the bodies of aborted children.”

“While the pharmaceutical industry ignores the evidence and continues to put our children at risk,” Sound Choice is conducting studies on the impact of residual human fetal DNA in vaccines on the brain development and autism in children, Sedlak continued.

Stanek also commented on the new developments.

“I’ve always read it was mercury in vaccines that was implicated in autism, although many studies state this isn’t true,” she said, noted SCPI debunks the idea.

“The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the same sort of ideological culprits we see covering up the abortion-breast cancer link are also involved here. This would be a huge, huge blow to embryonic stem cell experimentation, for instance. That, and/or big pharma sees huge class action lawsuits on the horizon if this is proven,” Stanek added.

“That virus-laden DNA of aborted babies could be wreaking havoc on the DNA of healthy children is completely plausible,” she said.

SCPI will present their studies at the International Society for Autism Research in May 2010.

PHILADELPHIA – December 4, 2009 (WPVI) — This year, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia made it mandatory for employees to get the seasonal flu shot. There were some exemptions made for medical or religious reasons, but some employees were denied that exemption and because they wouldn’t get the shot they lost their jobs.

“We’re very concerned because this is our livelihood, this is our main source of income, my husband and I, we have a mortgage; we have 5 children,” terminated employee Tyrika Cowlay said.

Tyrika and her husband are among nine CHOP employees who as of today lost their jobs due to refusing to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu.

They refused the vaccine based on religious beliefs. They are not the only ones.

“I’m just standing up for what I believe in and it’s hard, it really is,” terminated employee Khadijah Muhammad said.

Officials at CHOP say some religious exemption requests were accepted, others were not.

Rodney Bond, a CHOP employee of more than 30 years who is now terminated, says this is not fair.

“How do you pick and choose what religion is credible?” Bond said.

Dr. Susan Coffin, an infectious disease doctor at CHOP, says the decisions were made on a case-by-case basis and looked at whether employees have had other vaccinations in the past. The employees we spoke with say they either don’t recall getting other shots or have chosen not to recently due to new religious beliefs.

The terminated workers offered to wear masks, but Dr. Coffin says masks aren’t enough.
“We just can’t rely on a somewhat flimsy mask to provide all the protection our patients need when we have another option,” Dr. Coffin said.

She also says the decision to let workers go was not an easy, but again was done to protect patients.

“It’s not right for our patients to come to our hospital, have us look them in the eye and say we are doing everything possible to keep you healthy and safe here knowing we have people who walk through the hallways when they are making a choice not to get vaccinated,” Dr. Coffin said.

This shot in quesion was the seasonal flu vaccine, not the H1N1. The hospital did not make that vaccine mandatory due to the low supply of doses.